RAW Review For 1/4/16: Please Vince, Get Off TV While You Still Can!

San Antonio, the heart of RCW Country, the place where Alissa Flash made wrestling history in the city, the city the Blanchard legacy began, hosted RAW inside the AT&T Center, the home of the 5-time NBA World Champion San Antonio Spurs. And the main event would make people happy.

RAW begins with Stephanie McMahon walking down the ramp before WWE Champion Roman Reigns interrupted. Pissing off a guy who is at his breaking point is pretty pointless. While the war of words between the McMahon clan is at its all-time high, but let’s face it; WWE is all about management. In the words of former Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause, “Organizations win championships.” But the idea of management being maniacal is the one thing keeping WWE down. If Roman Reigns loses the WWE Championship, he’ll never get another title again and he’ll be buried by WWE. If that happens, let’s hope he joins NJPW (The 2015 Barbwire Blog Awards for Best Japanese Promotion). But let’s hope that’s not the case.

Now we see Dean Ambrose ready to do commentary for the rematch between Kevin “Sore Loser” Owens and “Mr. Anti-Gravity” Neville. Kevin Owens in his mind that HE is the breakout star, but when you got these two in the ring, Owens and Neville are legitimate breakout stars and potential world champions in the future. Lots of big moves from Neville, but Owens puts Neville down with his power. Owens keeping Neville on the outside is good strategy, to keep his momentum going. With Ambrose on commentary, Owens will be distracted quite a bit. Neville broke the count, but got slammed into the barricade by Owens. With both guys with nothing to lose, this match is getting better and better. Owens gets the W with the Pop-Up Powerbomb, and hopefully this sets up another match with Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship in the future. While KO delivered a cheap shot on Neville, Ambrose took his brand of fighting to the sore winner. While we didn’t see a repeat from last week, Ambrose delivered an elbow drop on KO on announce table, breaking out apart.

We get Titus O’Neil against the lunatic Stardust one on one. While the big man gets the upper hand, Stardust it’s letting the “Cody” chants get the better of him. Lots of good action, but the big guy Titus O’Neil gets the W, getting Stardust with the Clash of the Titus.

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch should be interesting, considering that this is a non-title matchup. Both good athletes in the ring as the second generation Flair goes up against the underdog Irishwoman. Lots of good moves in the early going, but Becky gets the W. Charlotte after the match beats up Becky to a point where the fans will boo her. Paige is right about Charlotte, but now PCB is history.

Ryback is set for action against the Big Show yet again. A rerun from last week, yawn. It gets interesting when the Wyatt fellas showed up and beat up the Big Guy. 4 on 1 isn’t always a good thing, but once we see the hillbillies beat up the Big Show, it only gets ugly from there. Will a member of Bray Wyatt’s delusional gang win the Royal Rumble? I doubt it.

Rusev and Alberto Del Rio, representing The Un-Americans 2.0, will be in action against The Usos in tag team action. While these guys start the bang bang stuff early in the match, but ADR and Rusev are dangerous competitors in the long haul. But the Usos are not ones to quit even the going gets tough. But in the end, the Un-Americans gets the win.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Heath Slater is going to be interesting, with Adam Rose, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel in Slater’s corner. Big moves from Ziggler early in the match, but Slater gets into a zone midway. Heath Slater gets the win with a roll up and distractions from the new J.O.B. Squad. Good grief, man. Where’s Al Snow where you need him?

The New Day (2015 Barbwire Blog Mainstream Tag Team of the Year People’s Choice and Editor’s Choice Award winners) goes up against the Dudley Boyz and Kalisto. The sleep fest began with a jab at Mike Tyson’s hoverboard accident. Not cool, bros. And now we get Y2J in the building, and the man with the golden mouth utilized verbal jabs of his own. Get Chris Jericho into the WWE Hall of Fame, pronto! And now we get to the action both teams get to work. Kalisto and the Dudleys get the early momentum, but when you’re up against the New Day, you’re bound to have problems. The New Day gets the win.

Reigns. Sheamus. Vince McMahon as referee. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line. Sheamus gets the rough stuff in the early stages of the match, but Reigns won’t give up that easily. McMahon showing some favoritism towards the challenger, and that is a major problem if you’re Roman Reigns. I’ll tell ya, these guys are proving to the people that they want the gold by any means. Once again, McMahon showing some bias here. But McMahon got his clock cleaned out for being a biased referee by Roman Reigns. But another crooked official tried to get Sheamus the victory, but got screwed over by Reigns. But Reigns hit the victory, and now he defends the title at the Royal Rumble when he defends it in a Royal Rumble match. That’s a bad idea in my opinion.

Final verdict: B- this week. Better luck next week.

And Vince, please get off television screens while you still can. Enough is enough.

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